Taijuan Walker’s Curveball + The Nastiest Pitching GIFs From Thursday’s Games

Every morning we review the nastiest pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious HD GIFs. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite pitch and check back this weekend to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the First Half Contest. Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @ThePitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.

Taijuan Walker’s Curveball –Walker believes he had a problem last year tipping pitches, which is death to any pitcher. That might explain his high homer rate. Walker didn’t seem to be tipping any pitches last night, and had 11 Ks, 10 via the Fastball. Here’s the one breaking pitch, a beautiful Curveball to K Erick Aybar.

Edwin Diaz’s Slider –Diaz may be favorite reliever to watch for pure stuff with movement on all of his pitches, and they’re all thrown hard. Here’s a nice Slider that falls out of the zone and away from Alex Avila’s happy zone down and in.

Justin Verlander’s Curveball –A lot of fantasy owners were ready to give up on Verlander after his 2015 season that seemed to show he was on the decline. He has reclaimed his role as #1 starter over the last year with outings like last night. This Curveball to Robinson Cano was sharp and Cano knows before he’s done swinging that he’s finished with this AB.

Chris Sale’s Fastball –The Sale vs. Tanaka matchup last night was a great contrast in styles. Sale used his overpowering stuff to K 11 hitters, but was the tough luck loser. This Fastball to Jacoby Ellsbury is one of those unhittable pitches. Ellsbury could either take it and hope for a ball, or maybe try and foul it off, but there’s no good outcome for 99 MPH on the corner. (Thanks to Redditor  Karma_Chamillionaire for the tip!)

Carlos Martinez’s Curveball – Martinez has flown out of the gates this year using his three pitch arsenal to befuddle hitters. This Curveball misses the spot on the outer third, but is thrown with such a sharp side to side break that high flying Chris Coghlan swings through feebly.

Masahiro Tanaka’s Fastball –Tanaka is an interesting pitcher to watch because he dominates with command of a slew of pitches around the same speed, but with varying movement. Here he uses a Two-Seamer breaking onto Hanley Ramirez’s hands to start the AB.

GIF Of The Night

Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the First Half Contest.

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